[ OP-ED COLUMN ]

Next Stage of Game: Voters to Polls

Published: Sunday, October 14, 2012 at 12:27 a.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, October 14, 2012 at 12:27 a.m.

With voter registration closing on Tuesday, the final stages of the ground game for the Nov. 6 election for both the Republicans and Democrats in Florida is well under way.

The first stage was identifying potential voters and making sure they were registered. Now both parties will turn their attention to getting those voters to the polls.

Early voting and absentee-ballot voting have become very popular. A poll released Oct. 11 by NBC, the Wall Street Journal and Marist College showed 38 percent of Floridians plan to vote early or cast absentee ballots, with 45 percent aiming for a traditional Election Day ballot. Another 17 percent were undecided.

Both parties like the early voters — because those are essentially votes in the bank for their candidates.

And in recent elections, Republicans have done the best job of getting their voters to cast absentee ballots, while the Democrats have benefited from the early voting days.

There's an indication those trends are changing in this election cycle. Democrats seemed to have narrowed the advantage that the Republicans have in the absentee ballots. But the Democrats also face a shortened early voting period, which begins Oct. 27 but will be a week shorter than 2008 because of changes in state election law made by the Legislature in 2011.

Of the nearly 2 million absentee ballots that have been requested, Republicans asked for 43.4 percent of the ballots, compared to 39 percent for the Democrats — an advantage cited by the Romney campaign.

In a briefing for national reporters on Thursday, Jen Psaki, a press secretary for the Obama, cited the Democrats efforts to close the absentee ballot gap in Florida.

"At this point in 2008, Republicans outnumbered Democrats among absentee mail voters by more than 245,000," Psaki said, according to a transcript of her remarks. "We've narrowed that gap, that margin, so now it's just over 70,000."

Meanwhile, Democrats are modifying their strategy for dealing with shorter early voting period. One element they must face is the fact that early voting will not occur on the Sunday before the Nov. 6 election. In 2008, the Sunday before the election was a key day for African-American churches to get their voters to the polls — in the "Souls to the Polls" initiative.

This year, the churches are targeting Oct. 28 as the Souls to the Polls Sunday.

PICO United Florida, a nonprofit group that represents a network of religious institutions across the state, said last week it would providing support to "member clergy with logistics for getting church members to the county early voting locations to vote together."

PICO United noted it is a nonpartisan group and does not endorse candidates. But the more voters who get to the polls on Oct. 27 are likely to be voters who favor Obama.

SENATORS BACK JUSTICES

Three Republican state senators said Friday that they disagree with the decision of the executive board of the Florida Republican Party to oppose the retention vote of Florida Supreme Court Justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Sens. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, and Dennis Jones, R-Seminole, said in a joint statement that they are "deeply concerned" over the party's leaders decision to intervene in what has normally been a nonpolitical, noncontentious retention vote for state appellate judges.

"Since the passage of the merit selection/retention system into our state constitution in 1976, both major political parties have maintained neutrality out of respect for the independence of the judiciary and the strong desire of the citizens of Florida to keep politics out of the courts," the senators said in their statement.

"The justices who are up for merit retention on the November ballot have served ably and honestly in their roles as Supreme Court justices. Each was retained by the voters in 2006 and immediately after their respective appointments.

"As policy-makers, we respect the balance of power between our three branches of government. Each of us has been disappointed in one ruling or another from this and other courts. But the need for a fair-and-impartial judiciary far outweighs our individual disagreements with any specific opinion."

The senators said they would encourage the state party to "reconsider" its decision and they said that they hoped other Republican leaders would join their opposition to the party's decision.

Party officials have said they decided to oppose the justices' retention because of "evidence" of judicial "activism" by the justices. Opponents have cited a half-dozen cases, including a death-penalty case in which the justices overturned the sentence — although it was reinstated after a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

WINNER OF THE WEEK

Sam Gibbons. The 92-year-old former U.S. representative from Tampa died last week. But he is a winner because his life exemplified more than 40 years of public service as a state legislator and U.S. representative from Tampa area. The D-Day veteran was instrumental in a number of achievements for the Tampa Bay region, including the creation of the University of South Florida.

LOSER OF THE WEEK

Student records. Authorities said a computer breach at Northwest Florida State College may have compromised data for than 200,000 Bright Futures scholarship students across the state as well as some of the college employees' records. Some 50 cases of identity theft have been reported.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"There's not a person on the face of this earth that can't be a witness in some case if they have relevant information," Leon County Circuit Judge Frank Sheffield said, in rejecting a plea that Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll be shielded from testifying in a criminal case involving one of her former aides.

<p>With voter registration closing on Tuesday, the final stages of the ground game for the Nov. 6 election for both the Republicans and Democrats in Florida is well under way.</p><p>The first stage was identifying potential voters and making sure they were registered. Now both parties will turn their attention to getting those voters to the polls.</p><p>Early voting and absentee-ballot voting have become very popular. A poll released Oct. 11 by NBC, the Wall Street Journal and Marist College showed 38 percent of Floridians plan to vote early or cast absentee ballots, with 45 percent aiming for a traditional Election Day ballot. Another 17 percent were undecided.</p><p>Both parties like the early voters — because those are essentially votes in the bank for their candidates.</p><p>And in recent elections, Republicans have done the best job of getting their voters to cast absentee ballots, while the Democrats have benefited from the early voting days.</p><p>There's an indication those trends are changing in this election cycle. Democrats seemed to have narrowed the advantage that the Republicans have in the absentee ballots. But the Democrats also face a shortened early voting period, which begins Oct. 27 but will be a week shorter than 2008 because of changes in state election law made by the Legislature in 2011.</p><p>Of the nearly 2 million absentee ballots that have been requested, Republicans asked for 43.4 percent of the ballots, compared to 39 percent for the Democrats — an advantage cited by the Romney campaign.</p><p>In a briefing for national reporters on Thursday, Jen Psaki, a press secretary for the Obama, cited the Democrats efforts to close the absentee ballot gap in Florida.</p><p>"At this point in 2008, Republicans outnumbered Democrats among absentee mail voters by more than 245,000," Psaki said, according to a transcript of her remarks. "We've narrowed that gap, that margin, so now it's just over 70,000."</p><p>Meanwhile, Democrats are modifying their strategy for dealing with shorter early voting period. One element they must face is the fact that early voting will not occur on the Sunday before the Nov. 6 election. In 2008, the Sunday before the election was a key day for African-American churches to get their voters to the polls — in the "Souls to the Polls" initiative.</p><p>This year, the churches are targeting Oct. 28 as the Souls to the Polls Sunday.</p><p>PICO United Florida, a nonprofit group that represents a network of religious institutions across the state, said last week it would providing support to "member clergy with logistics for getting church members to the county early voting locations to vote together."</p><p>PICO United noted it is a nonpartisan group and does not endorse candidates. But the more voters who get to the polls on Oct. 27 are likely to be voters who favor Obama.</p><p> </p><p><b>SENATORS BACK JUSTICES</b></p><p>Three Republican state senators said Friday that they disagree with the decision of the executive board of the Florida Republican Party to oppose the retention vote of Florida Supreme Court Justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince on the Nov. 6 ballot.</p><p>Sens. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, and Dennis Jones, R-Seminole, said in a joint statement that they are "deeply concerned" over the party's leaders decision to intervene in what has normally been a nonpolitical, noncontentious retention vote for state appellate judges.</p><p>"Since the passage of the merit selection/retention system into our state constitution in 1976, both major political parties have maintained neutrality out of respect for the independence of the judiciary and the strong desire of the citizens of Florida to keep politics out of the courts," the senators said in their statement.</p><p>"The justices who are up for merit retention on the November ballot have served ably and honestly in their roles as Supreme Court justices. Each was retained by the voters in 2006 and immediately after their respective appointments.</p><p>"As policy-makers, we respect the balance of power between our three branches of government. Each of us has been disappointed in one ruling or another from this and other courts. But the need for a fair-and-impartial judiciary far outweighs our individual disagreements with any specific opinion."</p><p>The senators said they would encourage the state party to "reconsider" its decision and they said that they hoped other Republican leaders would join their opposition to the party's decision.</p><p>Party officials have said they decided to oppose the justices' retention because of "evidence" of judicial "activism" by the justices. Opponents have cited a half-dozen cases, including a death-penalty case in which the justices overturned the sentence — although it was reinstated after a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.</p><p> </p><p><b>WINNER OF THE WEEK</b></p><p>Sam Gibbons. The 92-year-old former U.S. representative from Tampa died last week. But he is a winner because his life exemplified more than 40 years of public service as a state legislator and U.S. representative from Tampa area. The D-Day veteran was instrumental in a number of achievements for the Tampa Bay region, including the creation of the University of South Florida.</p><p> </p><p><b>LOSER OF THE WEEK</b></p><p>Student records. Authorities said a computer breach at Northwest Florida State College may have compromised data for than 200,000 Bright Futures scholarship students across the state as well as some of the college employees' records. Some 50 cases of identity theft have been reported.</p><p> </p><p><b>QUOTE OF THE WEEK</b></p><p>"There's not a person on the face of this earth that can't be a witness in some case if they have relevant information," Leon County Circuit Judge Frank Sheffield said, in rejecting a plea that Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll be shielded from testifying in a criminal case involving one of her former aides.</p>